2.7 billion dollars in 3 weeks: the phenomenon of betting on college basketball in the USA
Legal betting on college basketball picks up speed every year in “March Madness” – the prestigious tournament in which the best teams participate. Following the ruling of the United States Supreme Court, the number of states where betting on college basketball games is legal, jumped from just one state in 2018 to 38 states in 2024.
Sports fans in North Carolina, known as a basketball-crazy state, may have a little more fun in the upcoming major college tournament. The reason: they will be able to legally bet on the games through their smartphones and computers for the first time.
This is the sixth year in a row that the number of states that allow legal sports betting has increased. There are a total of 38 such states across the United States, where in 30 of them, as well as in Washington, DC, you can also bet online.
What’s amazing about the whole story is that until 2018 it was legal to bet on college basketball games only in Nevada, before the Supreme Court ruled that this lucrative business could expand to other states.
Laws on sports betting vary from state to state. In some it is forbidden to bet on local teams or on personal statistics of players. And there are those that allow you to bet on a variety of topics and not just on the final result, such as the number of points scored in the game, the amount of rebounds and assists a specific player will give and more.
The amount of legal bets on all sports in the US jumped 30% in 2023 and was $121 billion, according to the American Gambling Association. After the distribution of winnings, sports betting operators recorded revenues of $11 billion compared to about $7.5 billion in 2022.
The American Gambling Association estimates that the amount of legal bets this year on the college basketball tournaments (men’s and women’s) will reach 2.7 billion dollars.
Of course, the Super Bowl also attracts many bettors, but it is only one game. College basketball tournaments include 136 teams, who play 134 games over three weeks.
But not everyone is happy about it. The NCAA is concerned that specific bets on a player’s statistics can lead to problems, including harassment of athletes and stress on their mental health. The association also says such bets can entice players to bet on themselves or change their game to influence on statistics-based gambling.
It should be noted that college players, unlike professional players, do not earn a salary from the teams. At the same time, in the last two years a new law was enacted that allows them to earn money from sponsorships for companies and products.
